From my recent email, a nuanced yet inspiring story from non-directed donor Patricia Kravey.
"I’ve been
meaning to write you for five years so it’s time I finally got around to it,
but I’ll try to keep it short.
I’d been
thinking about being an altruistic for many years without people being able to
understand why. When my husband heard your interview on Freakonomics he finally
got it and shared the podcast with me.
Your chapter on
Kidney Chains has changed my life and the five people who received kidneys in
the chain I was a part of. Without the power of knowledge from your book I
would not have understood why my hospital was resistant to creating a national
chain that went outside their hospital system. From your chapter I called the
National Kidney Registry and UNOS to ask how they formed chains, how many
people could receive kidneys in their chains and the barriers hospitals
encounter in joining their programs. On the phone I was thrilled to speak to
Ruthanne Leishman, she was in your book, she was famous!
After learning
the cost for hospital to join NKR even though they have lengthy donor chains; I
told my hospital, where I was also an employee, that I would only be donating
through them if they participated in a chain through UNOS. Despite my request
to wait the hospital ran their program and matched me internally. So I had this
heavy weight of decision to give to the highly sensitized person my hospital
matched me with or to pursue a donor chain. After sleepless nights I came up
with what I thought was the perfect solution. I would agree to give to the
recipient within the hospital and their mismatched donor would be the person
officially enrolled in the UNOS program.
The surgery to
my anonymous recipient went smoothly. I cried when the doctors told me he was
doing well.
Months later I
bumped into my transplant coordinator in the hallway at the hospital and she
excitedly told me a news story was being released tonight. The mismatched donor
of the person I had given to had completed her surgery and the kidney chain and
continued on in the mad rush of 24 hours across the country. The news story was
going to be about the hospital’s first national donor chain and the person who
started it.
Since my
donation wasn’t within the exciting 24 hours my hospital had decided I wasn’t
part of the chain. I wasn’t included in the news story or even formally told
about it. The story showed my recipient who I hadn’t decided if I was going to
meet yet. My colleagues saw the story that night and could tell it was my story
that didn’t include me.
Your book
helped me understand why the hospital and the media would do that as well.
I did meet my
recipient in person later. He was a lovely man. Charming, appreciative and so
full of energy. He visited me at my office at the hospital several times and he
sent a gift for my baby shower. I felt very lucky and grateful to have met him.
Four years
after the transplant he died. Skin cancer got him. His wife told me the doctors
had led him to believe that the kidney he’d received from me could be passed on.
Of course it couldn’t be since it could contain cancer cells.
I have mixed
feelings about being an altruist donor. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t the story
or the fulfilling experience I had hoped it would be. But it was better and it
benefited more people because of you. I hope people tell you everyday that your
work has changed lives.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Patricia Kravey
(Harvey)
(in rereading
my interview in Swedish Medical Center's blog, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t
cite you!)"
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